A Simple Fruit House.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 197, 2 April 1887, Page 2

A Simple Fruit House.

i Now that grapes are grown in such large quantities in this colony many growers would no doubt be pleased to learn of j pome method of preserving some of their luscious bunches plump and fresh for winter eating. A Canadian correspondent- of the Rural JVci" Yorker describes a fruit house in which the writer succeeded perfectly, in keeping grapes in good con dition for months. We quote •— Last year vr« con vertert what wasongmauy a shed into a fruit and ice-house by sur rounding it with inch boards battened outside. It was boarded up inside, and a space 10 inches wide between the walls was tilled in with dry swamp muck. The shed was divided in the centre in the same way (see

engraving and filled in. No doubt sawdust would answer the same purpose where it can be as easily procured. The upper floor of the fruithouse is double and the boards are about three inches apart to allow the partiatly heated air to return to the ice house. In doing this it keeps the upper floor cool as it enters on the opposite side from it. Against the division Wall and on all side.are nailed half-inch strips so that in the icehouse there will be room for air to circulate through openings eight inches each in the lowest part of the division wall, while the other three iidee of fcho iee-hoace nth ailed eight inches round with sawdust. There is a double door with glass front in the outer one to admit light, so that it need not be open to admit heated air. In this building .luring the past season we stored asparagus, strawberries and raspber 1 iesMicccPsfully and are now enjoying grapes that we have often tried vainly to keep in baskets in the house. They were placed in eight pound flat baskets and hung up to the ceiling, several hundred baskets being in the housp at one time, besides those shelved. It is such a simple building as to be within reach of every farmer, and amply lepays all the labour and expense. The grapes are not in the least shrivelled, nor are they dropping from the stem, which I attribute to the evenness of temperature in the building.